Sound and performance

One characteristic of electronic music is the way the music is divorced from the performance gesture. That is, the sound does not necessarily relate to the performance of that sound. For instance, watch Bela Fleck and his Flecktones sometime. You'll hear percussion though there is no apparent drummer on stage. The percussionist is actually Future Man, playing his drum axe, or whatever he calls it, wait, let me check... "synth-axe drumitar." It's basically a guitar like thing with a whole lot of buttons all over it, triggering whatever drum samples he programs for each song. It makes sense to me, he has ten fingers to work with instead of just four limbs. Also the bassist, Victor Wooten, doesn't appear to play half the notes you hear, but that's not electronics, that's just crazy-mad skill.

Whereas in the past a violinist creates a beautiful tone by applying the precise amount of pressure at a carefully consistent speed, today I re-create the same beautiful tone quality by choosing an appropriate sample from my hard drive. However, the point of electronic music is not to duplicate traditional (obsolete) instrumentation, but to expand the sound palette to include entirely new sounds(John Cage, Silence, pg. 4). Who needs mallets and bows and air pressure when the crack of thunder or crashing ocean wave is at my command. Why limit myself to chord progressions to intensify drama when I can include the sound of a wailing child, or exploding rocket. I can be as subtle as the beating of a butterfly's wings or the crackle of smoldering charcoal (Iannis Xenakis, Concret PH, 1958) .

But, the question remains, is all this a good thing? Perhaps the thing that makes music the most valuable for most people is the human connection between audience and performer. People like to visualize (auralize) the rosin contacting the string, the desperate breath required for the trumpet entrance, the effort involved in maintaining pitch on the oboe, etc..

This is why I believe, as much I value electronic music, live performance on acoustic instruments will never completely go away.